Support for Family Issues

How to Head off Cancer

This article is printed in the April 2008 Edition of the Good Housekeeping Magazine.

How to Head Off Cancer

Confused by conflicting medical studies?

These eight strategies will help keep you healthy.

1. Live the active life. Even if you're lean, you can't rest on your laurels. You can't rest, period. According to a recent study cosponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health, thin women who exercise for less than an hour per week are up to 32 percent more likely to die of cancer than equally slender but more active women. Experts think that regular workouts may boost your immune system, so it'll be better equipped to stop precancerous cells from becoming malignant. Exercise seems to pay off most in the fight against breast cancer, but it also helps prevent colon and ovarian cancers. How much walking, jogging, biking, swimming, or playing tennis do you need to do? The American Cancer Society suggests 45 minutes, five or more days a week. But everyday activities like gardening, cleaning the house, and washing the car count too, many experts believe.

2. Pay attention to extra pounds. Excess weight makes you more vulnerable to cancer of the breast, cervix, uterus, ovary, colon, kidney, liver, and gallbladder. In fact, the more overweight you are, the higher your risk will be: In a major study of 900,000 Americans, the heaviest women had a 62 percent higher death rate from cancer than women of normal weight. But if you drop pounds, you'll help lower your levels of insulin and other factors that promote cancer growth, says Cynthia J. Stein, M.D., M.P.H., of Harvard. To find out whether your weight puts you at risk, check your body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Ideally, it should be under 25 (you can find GH's BMI calculator "http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/bmi-calculator" Do you have a ways to go to reach 25? Smaller losses help too. Even avoiding any more gain is beneficial, since it prevents your cancer risk from increasing.

3. Say yes to fruits and veggies. They contain potent cancer-fighting compounds called antioxidants, which protect against cancer of the lung, stomach, colon, rectum, larynx, pancreas, breast, and bladder. In fact, if we all ate five or more servings a day, cancer incidence worldwide would drop by 20 percent, according to a report cosponsored by the American Institute for Cancer Research. You should aim for at least three veggie and two fruit servings daily.

4. Get the tests that truly prevent. When it comes to cancer screening, the Pap smear and colonoscopy are special: They find precancerous growths, which can be removed, thereby stopping cancers from ever starting, explains Peter Greenwald, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute. If your Pap reveals cells on your cervix, the OB-GYN can remove them via an office procedure. During a colonoscopy, the doctor can snip out any polyps -- growths of benign tissue that sometimes turn into cancer -- as he's examining your large intestine. You should have a Pap every year if you're under 30; after that, if you've had three normal tests in a row, you may be screened only every two to three years. Colonoscopy screening should start at age 50, then be repeated every five to ten years.

5. Get your vitamin D. A few months ago, a review of more than 63 studies found that this vitamin offers real protection against colon, breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers. We suspect it helps keep cells tightly knit together, which prevents rogue cells from breaking away and mutating into cancer, explains coauthor Edward D. Gorham, Ph.D., of the University,San Diego. The best source of vitamin D is sunlight. But you have to be sunscreen free for ten to 15 minutes a day, twice a week. Alternate sources of vitamin D: fortified dairy foods, cereals, and orange juice; oily fish; and most multivitamins. How much do you need? The daily requirement is set at 200 international units (IUs) for women under 50 and 400 IUs for those who are older. But many experts feel intake should be closer to 1,000 IUs. Talk with your doctor.

6. Consider the Pill. Take it for ten to 12 years and you'll slash your risk of endometrial cancer by more than 70 percent and your risk of ovarian cancer by 50 percent or more. Even if you're on oral contraceptives for only one year, your odds of getting these two cancers go down. And protection continues long after you stop taking the Pill, for up to 30 years.

7 Pop the right supplement. In a study, women who took a multivitamin with folic acid every day for at least 15 years cut their risk of colon cancer by 75 percent; other research has linked folic acid to better odds against breast, cervical, and ovarian cancers. 8 Do the obvious -- quit smoking. Now there's a new reason: Smokers have a 30 to 40 percent increased risk of breast cancer, says a study from the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Of course, quitting also cuts your chances of developing other cigarette-related malignancies -- of the lung, cervix, bladder.

These Studies are printed in the 2008 April Edition of Good Housekeeping Magazine. Their everyday tricks: How cancer experts fight cancer.

"I think it's important to have a multivitamin every day, but I hate swallowing pills. So now I take a chewable Flintstones".Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Prevention Center,Cancer Research Center.

"Every Sunday, I make a huge pot of vegetable soup, wash a ton of lettuce, and stock up on carrots to eat the rest of the week". Marcia L. Stefanick, Ph.D., professor of medicine, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine.

"I wouldn't get to the gym if left to my own devices. So I joined with coworkers; peer pressure definitely works! I've also found a simple way to keep my weight down: I gave up tortilla chips". Marji McCullough, Sc.D., R.D., senior epidemiologist, American Cancer Society

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.